(Not Meant To Be)
by CaitieCait101
Summary: They met in the shop and fell in love a few months later. Their romance was precious, but every good thing comes to an end at some point.


_Sorry for the absence! So this was written for_ _ **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assigments).**_ _The class is Ancient Studies. The task was to write a story spanning a year, with a scene for each month. I fell in love with the prompt and knew I had to do it._

 _Enjoy!_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ _I don't own Harry Potter._

 _(Not Meant To Be)_

"Well, Ms. Grey, you've got the job!"

The twins had carefully reviewed all of their potential employees and decided that, ultimately, she was the best applicant. The others were pretty much all teenagers who seemed more apt to _steal_ products than to sell them – not just an assumption, seeing as some of them actually _did_ have criminal records.

The blonde smiled politely, "Thank you so much; I'm very honored to have been chosen. When should I start?"

(LINE BREAK)

She smiled, scanning through the shelves of products. Inventory had become one of her main priorities, seeing as her employers were absolutely terrible at managing it themselves.

"Really, where would you be without me?"

George looked over at the sound of her voice, chuckling. "We would've lost thousands of products by this point. There'd probably not even _be_ a store anymore, what with the backbone missing!"

Rolling her eyes, Verity resorted a misplaced product. "Clearly. You two _invented_ these. You would think you'd at least be able to properly _place_ them."

The man retaliated by grabbing a nearby product and launching it at her. She squealed as it exploded, showering her with confetti.

"George!"

(LINE BREAK)

Fred shook his head, suppressing laughter. "You two might want to be careful – I'm sure Bill is the only one currently allowed to give Mum grandbabies!"

"Oh my gosh, Fred, just undo the charm already! You've had your laughs!"

His twin looked up at him, glaring from his frozen position. "I _will_ have your head for this!"

"Really? I feel like Mum will be the one having _your_ head, since you haven't introduced her yet, yeah?" This time he let it out, grinning widely at the two. "Anyway, you guys have _fun_ with your… predicament. I think I'll just go get some lunch; see you later!"

The door shut behind him, cutting off the pair's outraged yells.

(LINE BREAK)

"What's with the frown, Ver?"

The girl's green eyes widened as she met his blue. "Oh, Fred, you surprised me. And it's nothing, just my sister. She's getting married this weekend and it's going to be torture to sit through it. Unfortunately, I'm expected to attend."

"Not close are you?" He couldn't imagine being unhappy for a sibling like this, they all cared too much about each other.

"No, we're really close, honest. I just absolutely despise weddings. They're a pathetic attempt to make a promise that's just going to be broken anyway. What's the point? Not every girl dreams of a fairy tale ending."

(LINE BREAK)

Molly smiled pleasantly at the blonde sitting across from her. "Well, Verity, I know that we've already met, but things were rather different then, so I'm Molly, George's mother. Also Fred's, but that's beside the point."

The girl laughed cheerfully. "It's nice to meet you again, Mrs. Weasley. I hope you don't have any major issues with me dating your son."

"Of course not darling, you seem like an amazing young woman. Hopefully you'll my son will take a leaf or two from your book; it would really benefit him." The smell of finished food wafted through the air, taunting the table's three occupants. "I guess it's done then – I'll be back in a moment."

"So," George paused for a moment before continuing. "Not running for the hills yet?"

Verity slipped her hand into his, playing with his fingers for a bit before responding. "Definitely not."

(LINE BREAK)

"Oh it's so cold! Where did the summer go?"

He laughed as his girlfriend immediately raced back inside of her flat to grab a jacket. When she returned, it appeared his guess had been correct.

"Honestly, it's entirely ridiculous that it's like this at this time of year. I mean, I know it's England, but _still_."

George wrapped an arm around her and pecked her cheek before speaking. "Well, I don't care how cold it is outside, as long as you don't get cold feet."

Her only reply was to playfully knock her shoulder against his.

(LINE BREAK)

"How could you do that, George!"

The red-haired man scowled at the reminder of that night's events. He would rather have forgotten about it entirely, but Verity apparently had other plans. "Do _what_ , darling?"

Her narrowed green eyes did an excellent job of conveying her irritation. "You were so _rude_ to him! Whatever happened to you being okay with meeting some of my old friends?"

"I don't know, whatever happened to the warning that I was about to meet your ex? I mean, _seriously_ , Verity, how was I _supposed_ to react?"

"Not like that! He was behaving nicely all night!"

He rolled his eyes. "He was _staring at you_ all night!"

"No, he wasn't; he's _engaged_ , George! He has no reason to ogle me when he's got his own girl! And _I_ have no reason to ogle _him_ when I've got _you_!"

(LINE BREAK)

"It's so nice to finally meet the girl my younger brother's been head over heels for," he said, causing her to smile brightly.

"Yeah, it's really nice to meet you, too. George really looks up to you, Bill."

He nodded, grinning. "Well, I tried to be a good older brother. If he thinks I've done a good job, then maybe I have."

"Oh, you definitely have, I can tell. He was excited for me to meet all of you, but you and Charlie were the two he was most excited about. I hear you work with Goblins?"

Bill launched into a series of stories about his job adventures, eliciting laughter from the girl next to him. Neither of the two noticed a pair of blue eyes watching them fondly.

(LINE BREAK)

The Weasley family plus a few had gathered for Christmas, just like in years previous. It meant that Verity was getting the chance to meet Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. They were the only four she'd missed out on seeing for Thanksgiving and she was looking forward to talking with her boyfriend's two youngest siblings.

Unfortunately, she was also a bundle of nerves.

"Come on, Ver, you were like this for Thanksgiving and that turned out well, right? I mean, you've even got the majority of it over with. It's just four people left, not to mention they're underage. Even if they hate you, it's not like they can do anything about it."

That made her laugh, hesitantly meeting his gaze. "Hm. I suppose it isn't like I can just bail; your mother would worry." She nodded decisively. "Let's go."

It was like she hadn't ever been anxious as she ushered him into the floo, complaining about how slowly he was moving.

(LINE BREAK)

"George. We've barely been dating for six months; do you really think we need to worry about the future right now? Who cares if we move in or get married or have kids? I don't think it's really all that big of a deal at the moment." She was as careful as she could be. Verity wasn't clueless. She knew her boyfriend had plans for the future, plans for the two of them. She just wasn't necessarily in agreement.

He scowled at her. "Why isn't it a big deal? I mean, what if we got married in a year? That's a _big deal_ , Verity. I _know_ you don't love weddings. I get that, really, I do. But we can have a small ceremony, just family. It's New Years Eve, a time to think about the future. What better time to talk about these things?"

For a long time, she stayed quiet. Her eyes held a storm of emotions in them. "Good night, George. I'll see you on Monday." She walked out, letting the door close silently behind her.

(LINE BREAK)

It had been a month. They talked, but they didn't say anything. Not really. Whereas before they could go on for hours, now they struggled to hold a conversation for five minutes. Neither of them wanted to face the truth of what was happening.

Fred frowned at his twin and best friend. "You guys doing alright?"

Silence.

(LINE BREAK)

"Verity."

Her shoulders jerked in shock as she whirled to face him. "Hi, George. You wanted to talk?"

He sat next to her in the booth. They'd chosen to meet at the Leaky Cauldron. She'd resigned a week and a half ago. They were drawing this out much longer than they needed to.

"You know why. This isn't working; it's why we hardly talk, it's why we fight whenever we _do_ talk, and it's why you quit. We have to end this while we still have any hopes of being friends after all of this."

She nodded, both of their hearts sinking. They'd both, unknowingly, been hoping the other would have the energy to fight for their relationship, but they were both just too tired. "Alright, then. I guess that's it. Um, have a good day, George."

When she walked out of the Leaky Cauldron, their bond shattered.

 _Word Count: 1473_

 _I really hope I did well on this. I've never really written Slice of Life stuff, so here you go. The pairing was George and Verity. I kind of just went where I wanted with Verity's character. There isn't much reference to the war and Voldemort, even though it was supposed to be going on in the background. Sorry, it isn't my best work, but it is what it is._


End file.
